Hardware beats software

Why can't I pick up Chinese as fast as my kids? We all came here, same time, a year back, and they rattle away while I can hardly finish a sentence.

Hardwiring in the brain. Children have this universal grammar, as Chomsky called it, inside their head, others like Pinker call it a language instinct. Whatever it is, children have a natural ability to process any language input and produce whatever language they are exposed to.

But I've heard of adults picking up foreign languages.

Sure. You get a good book, or a teacher, you set yourself goals, you put in the time, you'll get there.

But I don't want to just get there, getting by. I want more...

To speak like a kid?

Well, fluently like a kid but sound like an adult.

Well, you see, with your book and your classes, you're using software. Kids have hardware. That wiring all dissolves about age thirteen. But on a level playing field, their hardware beats your software.

How did this hardware, or instinct, or grammar, or whatever you call it, arise?

Some say our brains grew as a response to survival pressures, and with that humans started talking. And to each other. Others believe it came into being as a negiotiating tool for forming social groups.

I'd go for the Darwinian survival explanation. Those that are slow to pick up on 'Watch out for the tiger' must have been eaten.

Could have been a bit of both. Persuasive skills could have helped some swap a bit of animal fur for a comfier cave. Having influence in the group, and being listened to, could have turned us into an ever more talkative species.